Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman revealed on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had repeatedly prevented him from executing plans he had prepared to assassinate Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
His statements during an electoral meeting were in response to repeated harsh criticism by Netanyahu in which he said Lieberman “doesn’t match words with deeds.”
Netanyahu revealed that Lieberman had repeatedly addressed the possibility of assassinating Haniyeh, but he never acted on his words when he assumed the defense portfolio.
“I’ve decided to tackle this subject for the first time today and put an end to the series of lies,” Lieberman said during a meeting with a group of Russian-Jewish activists from his party.
“I have submitted an integrated plan several times to the Cabinet to assassinate Haniyeh, and every time Netanyahu volunteered to abort it.”
“I proposed assassinating Haniyeh before 2015 elections and promised the public to carry out the assassination two days after taking office as defense minister,” Lieberman added.
“When I took office in 2017, I submitted a very clear and integrated plan that couldn’t be interpreted differently to assassinate Haniyeh and other officials, but Netanyahu aborted it,” he continued.
Lieberman appeared to be particularly angry with Netanyahu for running an election campaign against him on the Russian street, warning Russian Jews of the premier’s deceit.
He said the PM does not know how to tell the truth and does not care for the people, Russians and Oriental and Ashkenazi Jews. All he cares about is retaining his position in power.
